Staff Picks

Reviewed by Megan

When I first picked this book up from the “Staff Picks” shelf of a Portland bookstore (you’ll never catch me turning down the opportunity to roam the shelves of an indie bookseller no matter how much time I spend in one on the clock) I wasn’t quite sure what genre to file it into in my brain. The synopsis starts with the death of the author’s mother, then the introduction of inexplicable flashing lights in the woods behind his grieving father’s home – suddenly I’m coercing mystery, religiosity, paranormalcy, even perhaps extraterrestrial contact into my expectations of what I might find in this book alongside grief, loss, and familial connection.

Entrancing from the start, Vollmer’s memoir brings all these ideas together in a compassionate exploration of things that we believe – or might believe, or stop believing – when faced with loss, tough questions, and unexplainable mysteries. The prose is lyrical yet unpretentious, allowing empathy and curiosity to guide father and son’s process of grieving, rebuilding, and truth finding.

“All of Us Together in the End” is a beautiful read and well-deserving of its spot on that Portland Staff Picks shelf, as well as, now, on my own here at Back of Beyond.

Reviewed by Heidi

Saving Time is an ambitious, wide-reaching book that explores the relationship between time, money, and power. Odell masterfully illustrates how the dominant view of time as linear and incremented is inextricable not only from capitalism but from a whole host of other systemic harms, including colonization, white supremacy, and climate change.

For instance, it can often feel like we are marching toward an inevitable and apocalyptic future, the dreaded outcome predetermined. Odell doesn’t shy away from her own experience of this feeling, but also pushes back against what she describes as “declinism,” a fatalistic and deterministic view of the future fueled by nostalgia for the past. She reminds the reader that the dominant narrative of climate change – and time itself – as a linear, set-in-stone progression of events is instead just one possibility among many.

This insightful, mind-bending book is woven together by a myriad of sources and topics that loop back on themselves in startling ways, defying my efforts to summarize the whole. The best way I can describe Saving Time is this: it is both a paradigm-shifting call to action and a healing balm in an age of climate unraveling and sociopolitical upheaval. It acknowledges the deep grief and exhaustion many of us feel, without wallowing in despair. Above all, it is a hope-filled dive into our experience of time, reminding us that the way things are is not the way they always were, nor what they always have to be.

Reviewed by Sophie

Kent Frost’s classic is part folk history and part ode to wilderness. Frost writes about growing up in Bluff, Monticello and La Sal in the 1920 and 30s, his adventures in the La Sal Mountains, Grand Gulch, Montezuma Canyon, the Needles, Monument Valley, and on the San Juan and the Colorado Rivers. Frost is an excellent storyteller with salty humor and vivid descriptions of the canyonlands he loved so much. For those interested in local history, this book is a must.

Please note: this book is now out of print, but we have a copy or two in store – call 435-259-5154 or email us for more information.

Reviewed by Alyssa

I picked this up without knowing anything about the story, just that it was highly recommended by a friend. I dove in with that assurance alone, and I am so happy I had no idea what I was in for! It made the slow burn all the more creepy in this genre-bending pseudo-horror. Faint brushes with horror are normally as much as I can stand at a time so it was the perfect amount for me. I loved the idea of people living in their own oceans and no matter how well you know and love someone, you don’t and you can’t know them fully. There’s a whole ocean of a person in front of you and how could you possibly discover it all – some of it’s beautiful and a lot of it is hostile and dangerous and highly individual. Someone can invite you in but you and they are just as likely to drown or disappear down there as you are to splash around safely and collect seashells.

Reviewed by Collee

The Guest is propulsive in an almost feverish way. The protagonist, 22 year old Alex, grifts her way across an exclusive beach town in search of a new situation after the patronage from an older man abruptly ends. The book encapsulates one week in her world of angling, manipulation and self-delusion.

Alex is a bit of a phantom. The interest lies not in knowing her, but in what this constantly moving shark will do next. The Guest is rife with portent and taut with tension. A fascinating trainwreck to watch unfold. The best kind of icky.

Reviewed by Megan

In her poetry collection, Bread and Circus, Airea D. Matthews powerfully couples her background in economic study with intimate auto-biography to directly counter the theories put forth in classical economic and political thought. Pushing boundaries of poetic form, Matthews’ work poses a challenge to Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” proposing the failure of self-interest in reaching an economically optimized society when that society’s people themselves are commodified. Deeply personal poems and prose are offered alongside redacted excerpts from both Smith and French Marxist Guy Debord, leaving the reader with both a greater wisdom of the truths of modern society and with a deep connection to the author’s own story. Bread and Circus is creative, moving, and massively relevant – highly recommend!

Reviewed by Matthew

If the first page doesn’t seize you, there’s no better pitch for the novel. Like many great stories, you’re told everything at the start. Who, how, where, why, when, all on that first page. Then, the novel will spend the majority of its remaining pages casting a spell so enchanting that you forget the inevitable, forget you already know how this all ends. Great storytellers like Toni Morrison know plot can all be spoiled before the curtain even goes up, because the magic is in the telling. And, this is a telling with power to forever change the way you hear. Listen.

Jazz by Toni Morrison

This new eco-thriller from Eleanor Catton begins when a landslide blocks off a pass on New Zealand’s South Island, leaving a small town and a large farm mostly abandoned. The guerrilla gardening group known as Birnam Wood quickly seizes the opportunity for some semi-criminal crop planting. By the time the collective encounters an enigmatic American billionaire who claims to have purchased the farm to build his doomsday bunker, I was totally entangled in the plot’s intrigue. Catton completes an impressive balancing act over the course of the book, delving into rich thematic territory while also fleshing out a memorable cast of characters and steadily ramping up an engrossing mystery. The ideological extremes of anarchic environmentalism and techno-capitalism meet in a delicious muddle while the shadow of climate apocalypse looms over the proceedings. Birnam Wood was a novel that I could not put down and one I will not forget anytime soon.

reviewed by Shari

This is a beautifully crafted novel that takes readers on a journey through time and self-discovery. The story follows the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris. Interestingly, Berest has chosen the genre of fiction to interrogate her own family history, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the significance of familial bonds. Berest adeptly examines how the past shapes the present and the ways in which our ancestors’ experiences can influence our own lives. Anyone interested in either the City of Lights, history or calling up the past for a chance at reclaiming the present will love this novel as much as I did.

Reviewed by Sophie

Parker-Chan’s debut is a stunning retelling of Chinese history focusing on themes of gender identity, free will, and desire. Set in 14th-century China, this historical fantasy tells of a girl who refuses to be nothing. Taking on the fate and identity of her brother, Zhu Chongba, she seeks greatness at any cost. Her journey from peasant to monk to war commander fuses her with characters as complex and strong-willed as she is, and provides readers with a compelling, heart-wrenching story.